Politics

Photo: Gayle Brodsky

Politics is one of the most popular departments on campus. Aside from the great classes, terrific faculty and smart students, politics attracts people because it is deeply connected to the real world issues that face individuals, communities, and nations. Some people come to politics because they are curious or concerned about a problem or issue that involves power, people, and their governments: war, poverty, bigotry, degradation of the environment. Some are fascinated by how governments work, how people reason about collective problems, or how historical forces shape political outcomes. Others find that they have a taste for political action themselves — an urge to be at the center of world events, to persuade, to bargain, to carry the day for their side. Students of politics search for systematic and reliable knowledge of what is politically possible — of what can be done and under what circumstances. This leads them to construct tentative explanations and models of political events, refining and generalizing such explanations, and testing them against experience. Potentially, all human history may be relevant to the search for political understanding.

It is hard to devise one all-encompassing definition of politics, but in a general sense, politics is the study of government. This includes political institutions, like legislatures and courts, as well as other political organizations and actors who play a role in the functioning of government. In a more complex sense, politics is the study of processes by which communities make collective decisions. To analyze the deeds of political institutions and actors, this broad approach examines the influence of other entities, such as the media and non-governmental groups, as well as the ideologies held by all who participate.

International relations considers political processes at work in the community of states and the developments which result. Comparative political science engages in close scrutiny of different systems, studying how political processes vary in different places and time periods. And American politics examines both American political institutions and American political outcomes. Ultimately, these subfields combine into the general attempt to understand both the functioning of political systems within and between societies and the paths we might take towards improving them.

Political theory takes on more abstract, philosophical, and often normative questions: How should these processes work? What standards should we use to evaluate them? What goals (protection of rights, cultivation of virtue, establishment of justice, adherence to democracy, etc.) should we work towards? Some questions will take a more historical approach, studying thinkers from Aristotle to John Rawls. Others focus more on the philosophy of present-day institutions, explaining and critiquing their existence. Most scholars, students, and classes will mix the two to some degree. Political theory differs from the other subfields, but its students are free to address American, foreign, international, and abstract issues.

Studying politics can enable you to learn a great deal about contemporary society. For example, the study of politics can help us understand why the American political environment is so polarized as well as what that means for future political decisions. In addition, studying the politics of any other region in the world can give great insight into the problems that the people of that region face as well as how they can begin to be fixed.

In a more general sense, learning about politics is so interesting and useful because politics plays a role in so many human interactions on both small and large scales. Majors will come to better understand the excellence of humanity, as well as its shortcomings, by studying how they have thought about, and implemented, systems of government.

The breadth of the field of politics is both a blessing and a curse. One the one hand, politics certainly does have something for everyone. You can study almost anything both in our society and around the world through the lens of politics. However, it can feel as though you always bite off more than you can chew and can never really make a dent in the wide world of politics.

To make it at least a bit more manageable, the department has broken it down into four primary fields: American politics, comparative politics, political theory, and international relations. Although you choose which area you will likely specialize in when you enter the department, this is fairly flexible and can change as you decide what you are interested in studying. So you don't need to feel like you are deciding your fate before you're even truly in the department. In addition, the fields themselves are very broad and you're still very free to study a diverse range of topics within each primary field.

Politics majors write two JPs and a senior thesis. Although this may seem like a large workload in comparison with majors which require only one JP, you receive a lot of guidance from both your fellow majors and the faculty. For the fall JP, professors lead junior workshops which are small classes of about 12 students focusing on a particular topic. During the junior workshops, students choose a more specific idea within the general topic about which they write their JPs. This structure allows students to receive basic instruction in the methods of conducting independent work, while focusing on topics which the students are interested in.

The second JP allows students more freedom. Working one on one with a professor that you seek out, you can tailor your spring JP to your individual interests and working habits. However, students are encouraged to seek help from other faculty members. This is particularly useful in the Politics Department, where faculty members have a broad range of unique specialties. While some students have trouble sticking to a schedule when they are free to devise it themselves (depending on the advisers), it is very valuable practice for the senior thesis. And your thesis adviser, our thesis writing groups, and the department's support staff will be there to help.

Finally, like almost all other majors here at Princeton, politics majors have the infamous senior thesis. It is certainly daunting to think about an 80 to 100 page paper, but really, it's just several twenty or thirty page papers about similar topics linked with some of those transitions we learned in our freshman writing seminars. Over the course of many months secluded in your carrel (usually located in the depths of Firestone), you pump out pages upon pages of new research.

There are a few misconceptions about Politics majors. Perhaps the most widespread is the idea that the politics department has curricular and intellectual opportunities that are indistinguishable from those of the Woodrow Wilson School. While there have been some similarities in the politics and WWS curriculums in the past, the recent reform of the WWS undergraduate program has made the majors more distinctive than ever before. Concentrating in Politics allows you to focus on politics. You have to take a total of 10 courses to meet the Politics course requirements, and all of them can (but don’t have to) be Politics courses. The WWS major, in contrast, requires you to be interdisciplinary with requirements in economics, sociology, psychology and science in addition to politics. Interdisciplinarity is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does limit one’s ability to study political phenomena in any depth. The Politics Department, in our opinion, allows more freedom both in the classes that majors are allowed to take and the focus of their independent work.

The Politics Department is truly about the study of politics, whether that means studying theories of modern racism, examining the causes of war, or exploring the role of media and campaigns in democratic elections. The Politics major also allows students to grapple with the important normative and ethical issues confronted by political theory. WWS, on the other hand, is about policy, not politics. Through a curriculum that synthesizes a variety of departments, it teaches students to identify a problem in our society, and figure out a way to write policy to solve that problem. The WWS aims to prepare people for public service, whereas the Politics department aims to provide a certain lens through which to understand the world. In short, WWS and POL are both excellent, but very different, departments, and the choice between them is a personal one.

What kind of internships and international experiences have majors had?

Politics majors have had a wide variety of internships and international experiences. The department advises students to go abroad typically during junior year. While students are still required to complete a JP during the semester abroad, the department tries to make this as easy as if the student were on campus. The way of fulfilling this requirement is to work with a Princeton Politics adviser through regular e-mail contact or via Skype. Joining a Woodrow Wilson School Task Force may also be an option, if space is available.

Students have also completed a vast range of internships. Although certainly some do internships with high profile finance companies and law firms, many others have interned both in government offices and a variety of non-profits. Although it is not required by any means, some students begin their thesis research during the summer before senior year, receiving funding to administer polls or collect data in other ways. One group of students was even invited to spend the summer in South Africa researching AIDS policy. Just as the information covered by politics classes is quite broad, so are the opportunities to which majors are exposed.

Politics majors will save the world by understanding the intricacies of international relations in order to decrease the number of wars around the globe.

We will also save the world because we have been trained to think analytically, and we strive to understand a conflict before attempting to fix it; only by getting at the root causes of things can we change the future.

Politics majors are interesting, intelligent, informed people. We are generally knowledgeable about the world, and enjoy engaging in discussion. When a Woody Woo major and a politics major go out on a date, you can expect a loud, intense, but very interesting conversation — but the politics major will win because they will focus less on specific policy choices, and more on the macro-level explanations that truly make the topic worth learning about.